New twist on solar panels

New twist on solar panels may lower costs, improve efficiency

August 10, 2011 - An innovative new twist on solar rooftop panels may lead to a renewable power system thats both more efficient and cheaper.

The proposed system, developed at Duke University, is designed so that sunlight is harnessed to produce hydrogen, which — oddly enough — should allow for more energy to be converted into electricity than standard photovoltaics.

Nico Hotz, an engineering professor, demonstrated the effectiveness of his system by pitting it against other solar-power technologies in a head-to-head comparison. During a trial in February and July, he found that the system achieved exergetic efficiencies of 28.5 percent in the summer and 18.5 percent in the winter. This was a vast improvement over conventional systems which was only 5 to 15 percent efficient during the summer and 2.5 to 5 percent in the winter.

And compared to some of the other alternatives such as a standard photovoltaic system, a photovoltaic cell-based system that includes battery storage and a similar photocatalytic hydrogen system, the technology is also the most affordable. read more>>>